Approaches to the Biofunctionalization of Spherical Silica Nanomaterials

Nanomaterials for the Life Sciences Vol. 2 Nanostructured Oxides. Edited by Challa S. S. R. Kumar Copyright 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN 978-3-527-32152-0 

In 1968, Stober and coworkers reported a pioneering method for the synthesis of spherical, monodisperse sihca nanoparticles from aqueous alcohol solutions of alkoxysilane in the presence of ammonia as catalyst [44]. In this method, the sihca nanoparticles were formed through the hydrolysis and condensation of alkoxysilane. In addition to the sihca nanoparticles prepared using Stober s method, various other types have also been prepared and reported (Table 4.1) [44-53]. Although the alkoxysilanes contain carbon, the formed sihca nanoparticles do not contain any exposed interior or surface carbons, and therefore can be considered as inorganic sihca nanoparticles (and are referred to as such). Recently, novel 

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I 4 Approaches to the Biofunctionalization of Spherical Silica Nanomaterials Table 4.2 Synthetic conditions. 

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